For a change of pace, I went out with my friend Nigel for another night shoot. It’s been a little while since I enjoyed some night photography. We decided to head over to Luther Marsh – somewhere close by, but still a little ways out of the city.
Luther Lake
There was a haze along the horizon. It looks like these hazy skies we were seeing could possibly be from the fires out west. As time went by the haze became worse and much more prominent in our photos.
Stars over Luther Lake
It got to the point where it was getting harder to see the stars.
Trail at Luther Lake
We decided it was time to pack up and head home. Hopefully, we will find another night to head out again soon. One preferably less hazy.
At the beginning of my walk today I noticed a couple of birds flying in and out of this very tall birdhouse. The macro lens is not the tool for this job but I thought it was an interesting viewpoint from way down below. With a little cropping and adding some clouds to the cloudless sky, I created the photo below.
Bird House
From here I focused on finding macro shots, that is what my challenge to myself is after all. I have been taking lots of macro photos but they haven’t been that great so that’s why you are seeing such a mix of shots photographed with the105mm macro lens.
Seed pods
I keep coming across interesting seed pods and I wonder what the heck they look like in full bloom. The seeds in the photo above reminded me of these creatures from an original Star Trek episode (Operation–Annihilate). I wonder what kind of plant it is and what it looks like in summer. Hopefully, I’ll be able to recognize it to take a photo.
Leaf in BW
I found this dried leaf that has somehow wrapped itself around its stem and still kept curling in on itself. It really popped when I decided to change it to a black and white image. Sometimes taking the colour out of an image can make an image you thought was too busy or just not that great into something that you love.
Nigel along with the Brampton Photo Group invited me on one of their outings in the hopes of capturing the snowy owl up in the Holland Marsh area. The area is known for wintering snowy owls but I had yet to check the area out so I jumped at the chance to join the group.
As we drove in to the area we spotted a beautiful red-tailed hawk hanging out in a tree. Unluckily for me he was too far for my lens to get a great shot of him (or her) but that always seems to be the case for birds. Maybe when I’m rich and famous I can purchase a much longer lens.
Red-Tailied Hawk
After driving around and seeing some more hawks (these were much further out and flying) we finally spotted a snowy owl. And of course he was just out of reach for a great photo.
Snowy Owl
It’s times like these that I say “stick with landscapes Sue they are much easier to capture”.
Ramshackled
Course that’s not really true. You can get a great shot of a bird it just takes loads of patience and time. We were limited on time and I think some people were limited on patience but hey that’s okay. We all have those days. It’s what you make of it that counts.
One of the toughest things to do is find inspiration from a scene that you had hoped would give you something good. When Nigel picked me up today and suggested we check out the hawks around the airport I was pretty psyched to try out some bird photography. Once out there I realized this would be a lot more challenging than I thought. Finding a hawk was the first goal. It took awhile but we did finally spot one pair in the distance.
Hawk overhead
Patience is definitely a virtue when it comes to birds. The two hawks we spotted were hunting so they were up and down quite a bit. I think one may have caught something but it was so far out of range of the 500mm lens it just wasn’t worth snapping the shot. (I still did because I was apparently feeling hopeful for some reason – yes some of us, even though we know its not going to be a good photo, still take the shot anyway).
Soaring
Not the successful kind of day I had hoped for but that happens from time to time. The point is even if you don’t get spectacular shots its all about getting out there and being in the moment. Getting out and shooting regardless of the results helps us all become better photographers at the end of the day.
